Hello all, my name is excellen and as far as I know I'm the first person ever to run a draft of an SRW game, and I've run a bunch of them over the last four or so years. The forum where I started this had a fairly large mecha fan base, and even an amount of srw fans that almost reached double digits. However, on my latest endeavor to start up a draft I found that most of them had left or did not have interest anymore, so I decided to try if the mechatalk forum could be its new home.

Drafting: What?
Drafting, as far as I can tell, originated in the fire emblem fandom. In one line; a draft establishes a pool of units in a game, players take turns picking units from this pool, and when the pool is emptied, they play the game with only the units they picked.

So, in our case, the pool of units will be every single pilot and their assigned mecha in both the Z2 games. So if you pick Loran, you also get Turn A gundam. You may not put an undrafted pilot in the Turn A and then use it, and you may not put Loran into an undrafted mecha and use that, either. Drafting a unit also includes any upgrades it gets. Also, Crowe, Esther and all the battleships cannot be drafted and everyone is allowed to use them. Finally, your drafts carry over between games. If you draft daitarn 3, you get it in Z2.1 and Z2.2, if you draft Athena and Nykick, you only get it in Z2.1, because it doesn't appear in Z2.2. If you draft Fyana and her brutishdog, you only get her for Z2.2, because she's not around in Z2.1.

The aim of the draft is to only use the units you drafted and that are free. Undrafted units may only be used to pick up items from the map, convince enemies, and sit themselves in battleships. They may be used in sub orders, and they may have their pilot skills upgraded and they may equip items. They may not attack or be attack, and they may not be used for support attacking or defending, or for combination attacks. They may not be used for friendship/love/rivalry/command aura/ EWACS bonuses and other bonuses. They may not use spirits except for accel, zeal and enable(on themselves or other undrafted units) to move them out of the way and into battleships. Finally, undrafted units may not be upgraded.

Secondly, how drafting is done. I will take 5 sign ups and make a list of them. I will then randomize the order of the list. The first on the list gets to pick one unit, then the second picks one, all the way down to the player lowest on the list, who gets to then pick two units, and then we go up again, everyone picking one unit till we reach the top, and the top player gets to pick two, etc etc etc. In practice, drafting order will look like this: 1,2,3,4,5,6,6,5,4,3,2,1,1,2,3,4,6,6 and so on. This is done until either no units are left OR if continuing would mean some players get one more unit than the others. In that case, the remaining units are free for everyone to use.

Finally, on to the specific rules.

Drafting rules:

This draft is for 6 players.

You start off with a fresh save file, New game+ is not allowed. However, you should use your Z2.1 clear file and import that into Z2.2.

Crowe must use the DEFAULT birthday and blood type.

Brasta, Li-Brasta, Brasta Es, and all battleships are free to use for the entire game.

Every other unit has to be drafted to be used without penalty, though there will be a lot of exceptions to this. The penalty for using an undrafted unit is 4 turns

Undrafted units are allowed to persuade, get secret items, Perform sub-orders, and sit their asses in a battleship. They are also allowed to cast skills if it keeps enemies from attacking them. All other skills are forbidden. They may not be used for support attacks or team attacks. They may also not be used for friendship, love, rivalry or command aura bonuses. You may not upgrade undrafted units. Equipping parts and/or using PP is still fine, however.

There are exceptions to this and this comes into play with forced deployment. You are allowed the use of any and every forced unit who can't retreat into a battleship. This exception only lasts till they can retreat into a battleship.

Drafting a unit gets you that unit AND pilot for BOTH games. You may NOT use pilots you have not drafted, unless said pilot captains a battleship for a change.

The Import bug and Sub-Order Bug are FORBIDDEN.

Acquiring a SR point is worth a -1 Turn Bonus

Fighting the Final Boss (Both games) at level 99 is worth a -5 turn bonus.

Free units: All Battleships, Brasta/Li-Brasta, Brasta Es.

All units are free from chapter 1-12 in Z2.1 and Prologue-10 in Z2.2. Zero may be used to perform the last hit on the Da Longdan on Z2.2 stage 17 for ZEXIS route.

When a character is SPECIFICALLY needed to perform a combative action to acquire an SR point, that character is free for that stage ONLY.

Characters who are not on the draft list ( temporary PCs like Zechs/Beck/etc) are considered FREE.

After the drafting is done, trades will be allowed between players, under the following conditions: